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TRANSCRIPT
asdasd
Jonas Beile
WORK
S
Coup d’État (2018)Performance, Screenshot, Inkjet-Print
Photo by S. Weise taken during the performanceCoup d’État (2018)
Coup d’État (2018)
Performance, Screenshot, Inkjet-Print
On the 16th May 2018, I rented a number of electronic scoot-
ers of the sharing service COUP and surrounded the Repub-
lic Square in front of the German Reichstag. Users of this
application-based service are provided with a live map of the
city showing all parked vehicles in the business area. By em-
ploying the vehicles as a means of transport, the users jointly
transform the visual pattern of black dots on the map. While
the accumulation of vehicles “in situ“ was barely recognizable
by passers, the birds-eye-view of the map showed an image
that is reminiscent of a military siege.
There is an inherent tension between the physical action in
urban space and its digital representation in the live-map
which is at play in this work. As users of application-based
services, we can only guess to what extent the data we pro-
duce is monitored and analysed by the companies and if an
“alarm“ could possibly be triggered by all too irregular be-
haviour. On the other hand, the security services surveilling
the governmental district are very unlikely to consider a dig-
ital map as a target of a potential attack. Hence, this pro-
ject served as an experiment to find out whether it was my
geo-referenced data or my actual suspicious behaviour in the
physical space that would ultimately “bust“ me.
A screenshot taken on a mobile iOS device 05-16-2018, 04:56
shows the map of the application COUP (e-scooter sharing).
The image in combination with the title represents the art-
work.
Member of (state?) security agencey inspecting parked vehicles
Workout Hygiene (2018)Performance, Bicycle, Video, Monitors, Sound
Installation view
Video Excerpt: tiny.cc/wh_multiscreen
Workout Hygiene (2018)
Performance, Bicycle, Video, Monitors, Sound
“Workout Hygiene” is an Inter-Media-Ac-
tion presented in the form of a two channel
video installation. In this work, a perform-
er is attempting to “clean” the virtual map
of a bike sharing application showing the
area around Karl-Marx-Platz in Berlin. Ev-
ery time the performer physically moves a
rented bicycle to specific GPS coordinates
which function as a “station” or “hub”, the
bicycle disappears from the virtual map, as
it is now accounted to this station. Due to
this feature of the application, it is techni-
cally possible to make all bicycles vanish
from the map while they remain, of course,
disposed in the streets.
Following this mission, the performer casts
the role of a video game character by exe-
cuting the Sisyphus-like duty of rearranging
a large number of vehicles in the streets of
the neighborhood, thereby competing with
all the regular users of the sharing service.
A screen capture recording of the map in-
terface is showing the transformations
caused by the interventions of the perform-
er. This video material is montaged to the
relentless rhythm of orders from a fitness
timer which is running on a second screen
accompanied by a video loop showing the
performer on a home trainer.
The rapid triumph of application based
sharing services in European metropoles is
accompanied by a rather harsh disapprov-
al by some part of the residents who com-
plain about the “pollution” of urban space.
Often times this disapproval is expressed
by relying on the same language terms of
hygienic phantasy as the rejection towards
immigrants by right-wingers and national-
ists. In media reports bike sharing has been
discussed under the headline “the yellow
disease” referring at the same time to the
yellow color of a specific sharing brand as
openly alluding to a form “asian capitalism”
allegedly invading European territory.
The low-waged workers of these sharing
companies represent a nearly invisible en-
tity. Scheduled by the relentless orders of
their mobile devices, they drive around the
city at night replacing empty lithium-ion
batteries and re-arranging vehicles in pub-
lic places for the customers to find them
ready-to-use in the morning. Similarly in
this project, the performer has to follow a
precise plan, dictated through the head-
phones of a mobile phone which guides
him through the city to the location of the
next target. Karl-Marx-Platz represents the
place where Joseph Beuys in 1972 cleaned
the streets after a manifestation, to make
us aware of the real working class, which
isn't addressed by such manifestations.
Still from Video Monitor 1: Hometrainer, Workout Timer
Still from Monitor 2: Map of Lidl Bike. Area: Karl-Marx-Platz, Berlin, Germany. Screen Capture Recording on Chrome Browser. + Screen Capture on iOS device .Workout Hygiene (2018)
Untitled (2020)
[Pimmel Uber Berlin]
Action/Intervention, Screenshot, Photo
Untitled (2020)
[Pimmel Uber Berlin]
Action/Intervention, Screenshot, Photo
In the booming gig-economy that has transformed metrop-
olises around the globe, Uber seems to have the biggest
dong. The company is considered a symbol of aggressive
market dominance and is widely known for its corporate
culture of toxic masculinity.
In the work "Untitled (Pimmel Uber Berlin)" the route of
an Uber ride is manipulated in such a way that it replicates
the shape of a phallus on the map. The result of the nav-
igation through the streets of Berlin only becomes visible
on the digital trip receipt. A screenshot of the Uber app
documents the action.
Exhibition View. 48h Neukölln, 2020 (Sample)
The Drain (2019)Human-Machine-Cycle
The Drain (2019)Performance, Air Dehumidifier, Plastic Tube, Water Bottle
The Drain (2019)
Performance Instructions
1. A cabin-like room has a humidity of 50%, an elec-
tronic air dehumidifier is installed therein. The per-
former enters this space with a 1 liter bottle of water.
2. The performer drinks all water and connects this
bottle with a plastic tube to the drain outlet of the
dehumidifying machine.
3. The engine’s threshold value is set to 50% humid-
ity, so it will not start running unless a surplus of hu-
midity is produced inside the room.
4. The performer has to maintain the functioning
of the engine through her/his continuous activity,
which can be physical movements as well as emo-
tions, talking, shouting, breathing.
5. The performance ends when the bottle is again
filled with 1 liter of water, which has then been pro-
cessed through the human body, the space and the
machine. The recollected water may thus represent
the wastewater or sewage of this performance.
The concept of this work has been proven on 10. September 2019 in a studio in Berlin in an 8,5h performance.
video excerpt : http://tiny.cc/drain_vid
Apriori Synthesis (2018)
Performance, Analog and Digital Synthesizers
Apriori Synthesis
Performances:
CTM/Transmediale,
Vorspiel, Modular+Space,
Berlin, 01-26-2018
Needsome, Radio Dreyeckland,
Freiburg, 04-06-2018
R e a c h A n o t h e r S y s t e m ,
Grießmühle, Berlin
09-06-2018
"What brings pure spontaneity into
its oscillation?"
Hegel, The Science of Logic, 71.
As a restriction and rule for this
sound excursion, all audible con-
tent in the performance is created
ex nihi lo, which means from
scratch, without relying on sam-
ples, presets and sound libraries.
http://tiny.cc/as_live
Live Recording from
Needsome @ Radio Dreyeckland
(Pirate Radio in South Germany)
Aggregate I-V (2014-2016)Microphones, Fluorescent Light Tubes, Mixer,
Amplifier, DC-Signal Power Control, Speakers
Video Excerpt: tiny.cc/aggregate_i
Still from Video Monitor 2: Hometrainer, Workout Timer
Aggregate I-V (2014-2016)
Microphones, Fluorescent Light Tubes, Mixer,
Amplifier, DC-Signal Power Control, Speakers
/w Felix Buchholz & Sascha Jungbauer
In the installations Aggregate I-V conven-
tional fluorescent lamps are dissolved from
their functional and efficient determina-
tion. In deficiency and excess states they
release their seemingly organic momentum.
The characteristic sounds from switching
on and off the fluorescent lamps – a sub-
liminal sensation in our everyday experience
– are put into focus by being picked up by
microphones and played back live through
loudspeakers.
The extracted audio signal from one lamp
serves as voltage control for each oth-
er lamp in order to constitute a functional
circuit. It generates continuously evolving
rhythmic patterns of sound and light im-
pulses. Whereas on a structural level they
resemble figures of generative computer
music, it is the very constellation of mate-
rial components which causes this audiovi-
sual chain reaction.
The idea of information, which is read out,
quantified, interpreted and finally pro-
cessed, is challenged by encountering an
unconventional setup of devices that func-
tions on the basis of a perpetual transfor-
mation of energy states. Light and sound
inextricably originate from the same entity
and create the impression of an object to
object relation, which, due to the distorted
correlation of its entities, always produces
new patterns; a self-engendering machine
with an unpredictable development.
Incorporating the material of the fluores-
cent lamp, Aggregate evokes a model of
progress and efficiency that is no longer
valid in today’s conceptions but its role has
shifted towards functioning as a symbol
for urban decay. This decay is also reflect-
ed in the overuse of the materials, which
adds another layer of transformation to the
work. During a longer period of exhibition
the sound character can change from har-
monic glass-like tones to more harsh and vi-
olent eruptions, whereas on the visual level
the afterglow of flickering tubes intensifies.
Every instance of this work series is a site-
specific intervention in which the architec-
ture of the respective space is fragmented
and perceptually reconstructed in the ever
changing rhythm of the fluorescent appa-
ratus.
Aggregate II, Altes Volksbad, Mannheim (2014)
Aggregate I, Spreng&Sonntag, Karlsruhe (2014)
Aggregate I, Karlsruhe 2014
Aggregate II, Mannheim 2014
Aggregate III, Freiburg 2015
Aggregate IV, Berlin 2015
Aggregate V, Basel 2016
Aggregate V, HeK House of Electronic Arts, Basel (2016)
Interference (2015)
Steel Plates, Steel Strings, Electro-Magnets, Electro-Magnetic Pick-Ups, Amplifier, Mixer
European Sound Art Award, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl, 2016
Interference (2015)
Steel Plates, Steel Strings, Electro-Magnets,
Electro-Magnetic Pick-Ups, Amplifier, Mixer
/w Felix Buchholz & Sascha Jungbauer
Two steel plates are positioned in space as
if they were about to fall, but their dynamic
momentum has been paused: Connected by
strings, they are forming an interdependent
static entity. The plates are set in motion by
electro-magnets using the hum of the mains
voltage. The reactions of the strings are picked
up, made audible and the signal is used to al-
ter the frequency at which the plates are ex-
cited. The result is a complex swinging system
which seeks a balance never to be reached: Due
to superpositions and cancellations the audible
drone and the visible shaking are constantly
subject to minor changes, resulting in the im-
pression that Interference seems to be stuck in
a fragment of time eternally.
counter < > balance (2017)
Scanner, Mirror, Electronic Parts
counter < > balance (2017)
Scanner, Mirror, Electronic Parts
counter < > balance is an installation piece which oper-
ates at the border of the analog and the digital and aims
to challenge our conceptual ideas and attributions re-
garding the autonomy of technical machines. This work
confronts us with a very simple test arrangement: The
surfaces of a flatbed scanner and a mirror are installed
in parallel. The white light bar of the scanner is reflect-
ed by the mirror. Two sensors are mounted at exact-
ly the same distance from the light source at the top
and bottom of the movable scanner carriage. The re-
flected light is controlling the rotation of the motor and
thus the movement of the “carriage” in one direction or
the other. A light barrier circuit, mounted to the driv-
ing belt ensures that the scanner lighting controlled by
the movements of the stepper motor. The circuitry of
these elements effectively represents the minimal form
of digitality based on the simple decision: ON or OFF,
LEFT or RIGHT, 0 or 1. However, the structure that lies
ahead of us is precisely designed in such a way that an
undecidability, a balance of opposing forces would have
to be assumed. The brief failure to maintain this balance
creates an autonomous, seemingly willful dynamic.
In a new version of the work the body of the scan-
ner is a transparent replica of the original.The machine
vision algorithm of photogrammetry (photoscan) soft-
ware is used in order to produce a 3d model from pho-
tographs without applying any manual correction.
Automatized Photogrammetry Reconstruction of the Scanner Body (work in progress)
Untitled (2016)
[30 meters later]
Reel to Reel Tape Recorders, Tape Loops,
Microphones, Loudspeakers
Untitled (2016)[30 meters later]
Reel to Reel Tape Recorders, Tape Loops,
Microphones, Loudspeakers
Two tape recorders are located at dis-
tant points in the exhibition space. A
magnetic tape loop connects the two
devices. One of the devices is equipped
with a microphone and records all the
locally occurring acoustic events onto
the magnetic tape. The tape moves
at constant a speed of 19 cm/s to the
other machine where it is played back
through a loudspeaker. The delay of
playback is thus determined by the ex-
act distance between the two devices.
This setup produces a spatio-temporal
separation of an acoustic event, its me-
dium state and its manifestation. When
the manifestation of an acoustic events
come to our awareness they always al-
ready belong to the past, since they are
separated from their original body and
place of occurrence.
This however creates the impression of
an actual dissociation of cause and ef-
fect, as if an interaction with the echo
could take place.
The installation Untitled (30 meters lat-
er) consists of several instances of this
very setup. Whereas the magnetic tape
loops actually divide the space along
their lines and embody an intervention
to the exhibition, the visual presence
of the work itself is rather subtle. This
subtleness is also represented in the
resulting sound environment which is
nonetheless fairly complex in its struc-
ture. While crosstalk between loud-
speakers and microphones leads to an
interplay between the different instanc-
es, the result is an audible palimpsest of
several spatial and temporal levels.
Exhibition View (partial) from Rundgang HfG Karlsruhe (2016)
Incident (2014)
Manipulated Fluorescent Lamp in Exhibition Room,
Microphones, Amplifier, Mixer, Media Player,
DC-Controlled Dimmer
/w Felix Buchholz & Sascha Jungbauer
Incident is an intervention executed at the
member show of Badischer Kunstverein in
Karlsruhe. This kind of exhibition presents a
vast amount of works - mostly paintings - since
it doesn't have any curatorial selection. There
is however, a set of quantifiable specifications
which are mandatory for the submission of 2-
and 3-dimensional works.
"Incident" sticks exactly to these rules while it
is incorporated in the regular exhibition archi-
tecture without being exposed as an artwork in
a conventional way: A microphone is attached
to the ballast of a lamp in the house's lighting
system and produces a deep drone which is set
just above the perceptual threshold. The au-
dio signal of this drone is used to regulate the
power supply of another lamp while stabilizing
its luminosity. A random mechanism cuts the
drone and thus the current flow of the lamp in
a non-regular measure, which causes a flicker-
ing that is accompanied by the characteristic
sounds of the fluorescents. Whereas this inter-
vention to an undisturbed contemplation of ex-
hibited works seems relatively radical in theory,
it is not always perceived and noticed by the
viewers. It represents however a subtle phe-
nomenon which oscillates between an everyday
technical error and a deliberate artistic gesture.